The chronological status of Asian Americans

Rose Lee's "integration theory" put forward in 1950s really attracted the Asian people at that time, and made them obsessively pursue and practice their American dream. However, in the process of Americanization, although Asians gave up their own language, customs, history and cultural values to adapt to white culture, they found that they were not accepted by the mainstream society and were still discriminated against. Yuji Ichioka, the founder of the alliance, put it more thoroughly: Although Asians pretend to be white, imitate their actions and words, and try to be like them in almost every way, "but this is just a self-deception dream, which exacerbates their own identity crisis."

After such reflection, the majority of Asians deeply realize that the consciousness and culture of white people are beyond their power; We must abandon this unrealistic American identity and establish a new direction more suitable for our own characteristics. This change in understanding is the key to the formation of Pan-Asian national consciousness. Secondly, completely denying the derogatory terms such as "Oriental" shows that the awareness of racial equality among the majority of Asians has increased unprecedentedly.

Since Asians first landed on the North American continent, they have been nicknamed "Oriental". From generation to generation, discrimination is getting stronger and stronger. This title almost makes Asians live in a "cage" full of prejudice and restrictions, which poses a huge obstacle to their foothold and development in the United States. After 1965, although the number of Asian immigrants has been increasing, their quality has improved and their economy has improved, the mainstream society has not reduced their exclusion and discrimination. 1970 survey shows that 25% of the Chinese who are known as "model ethnic minorities" work in restaurants, gift shops or grocery stores, and many college graduates can't find jobs and become typical "incomplete employees"; Among men with bachelor's degrees, only 13.39% earned 10000 dollars, while among white men with the same education, 27.7% earned 10000 dollars. As far as women in China are concerned, incomplete employment is a common phenomenon; Even if they can find jobs, they mostly work as clerks, such as accountants, cashiers, secretaries, typists and file managers. According to statistics, more than 40% of female secretaries in China have a college degree, while most white women in this profession often have only a high school education. In California, 36% of Chinese female employees work as clerks or typists.

In this case, most Asians hate the title of "Oriental". But for a long time, I have been suffering from no solution and can only submit to humiliation. As a new concept, "Asian American" emphasizes the concept that "Asians are also Americans" that mainstream society has to admit, and then denies a series of names with obvious derogatory meanings such as "Oriental". The essence of this struggle around appellation lies in maintaining or opposing the existing racial discrimination, which reflects the new awakening of the racial equality consciousness of the majority of Asians. Third, different Asians are regarded as a whole, and they have the cognition of "American native third world", which transcends the single racial consciousness.

For a long time, there has been a lack of necessary links between Asian ethnic groups, and the anti-discrimination struggle has been going it alone. This situation has changed fundamentally since the late 1960s. Looking at the speech of the Alliance, no matter which specific ethnic group the author comes from, his basic position is the same, that is, he regards himself as a member of the Asian ethnic group and discusses the problem from this point. Roots: An Asian American Reader, a collection of essays published in 1970, written by Franklin Waldo, Mary Uyematsu, Ken Hannada and Maria Cheng, the core figures of the Alliance, who come from different ethnic groups of Japan, India and China. This book expresses their common aspiration: "We have enriched the pockets of the rich Americans with hard work and taxes, but what we get in return is a life full of restrictions and discrimination without equal rights. Like the colonial people, this kind of life is considered reasonable, indisputable and unchangeable. Obviously, there are many similarities between the treatment of Asians in the United States and that in China. " "Many problems that plague the third world are also plaguing the third world in the United States. "It can be said that the same experience, social status and pursuit of equal rights of Asians have pushed the pan-Asian ethnic consciousness onto the historical stage of Asian Americans. The word "Asian-American" unites all Asian-Americans across countries, labels their identity and attributes as "unique", and enables them to know themselves from a new perspective, define themselves and explore the true meaning of being Asian-Americans.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a group of outstanding Asian writers began to emerge, and their works all discussed the issues of racial identity and cultural identity closely related to them. Qian Zhongshu, a Chinese American writer, is one of the most representative. After historical and cultural filtering, he accurately summarized the cultural connotation of "Asian American": "Asian American is not a ethnic group, but is composed of several ethnic groups such as Chinese, Japanese and Filipinos. Chinese and Japanese are separated from China and Japan by seven generations and four generations in geography, social culture and history respectively. They have evolved a very unique culture and emotion in this land of the United States, which is different from the characteristics of China and Japanese, and also different from the characteristics of white Americans. Even the Asian-American languages still used by Asian-Americans have been adjusted and developed into a unique language to express their new experiences. "

The term "Asian American" brings together all Asian descendants born in the United States with this name with strong political color, and brings together scattered Asian individuals with an unprecedented broad sense of Asian ethnic group collective. It hangs on the chest of all Asians born in the United States, just like a badge of honor and a beautiful trophy.